Sumac, billboard moonscape

The other day I noticed a nook of grass and sumac trees along Upper Lachine road, with a view of the Decarie and st Jacques bridge in the background. I walked up into the area with my bike and did this painting looking south. To make the sumac colour, its mostly yellow ochre (PY43), mixed perylene maroon (PR179). Once I practiced a few of them, I could make the sumac shape with one press of a small #2 brush. My brushes are getting pretty beat up by now, winter is always hard on the brushes. 

Sumacs Decarie, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Last year, I did some painting in an empty lot along st Jacques street and wondered if there would be a renaturalization effort by the city. Today I saw that the entire lot had been leveled and covered in gravel, packed down. It looks more like a development, although being so close to the escarpment, considering its probably landfill, I wonder if they are even allowed to build condos here. Still hoping for that re-naturalization project. The scene was a moonscape, complete with PJD 26 billboard. 

Billboard moonscape, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

More Griffintown construction

Griffontown was once a light industrial, warehouse and storage area that grew up around the peel basin which used to be a major shipping and receiving port. Looking at Google Maps street views from 2012, and you can still see all the old structures, just a few stories high, a labyrinth of streets, parking lots and alley ways. Now its mostly all filled in with glass condo skyscrapers and hipster restaurants and cafes which is cool I suppose. This construction is right beside one of the small offshoots of the Lachine canal. In the middle ground you see an iron wall, its actually keeping the whole Lachine canal at bay as they dig down. Its a wonder they can dig down so much and put in a foundation given the virtual river right next door. 

Construction vehicle Griffintown, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

This is one of the few 'old lots' left over in Griffintown, probably because its some sort of utility building. The building in the middle is an old warehouse converted into shops and condos. I just wanted to paint this kind of thing because it typically wont last long... one day it will just be a memory on Google Map street view, not to mention, my blog!

Old lot Griffintown, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Here is a scene of the Lachine canal offshoot, a berm of earth, then the iron fencing walls around the giant hole they are digging. The water was still largely frozen on top, in fact, it was so cold I had to bail on the painting trip since I had dressed for warmer weather but it was bitterly cold. 

Foundations and canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Bit of sun in Montreal

Maisonneuve still has a few car washes, small car mechanics, and a few light industrial buildings, although three such locations were replaced with condo complexes recently. The city gave grants to the condo developers to build those condos in order to create more affordable housing albeit near the train tracks. In the painting you see a car wash with a car inside, and the red/grey bricks on the outside. The grey is there because the owners have to paint over graffiti. In the alleyway there was a big graffiti by SCRIBE which I replaced with PJD. 

Car wash red grey bricks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

For lack of a better term I call this the triangle forest, its a small triangle of grass at the end of the old Maisonneuve bike path near Vendome metro. If you had to name a forest after me, this would be it, Peter's forest... I actually take care of the trees here, removing invasive vines and adding fertilizer when needed. Lately there is garbage all around, if the city doesn't move it, maybe I will when I have more time and things dry out a bit.  

Triangle forest, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

From Upper Lachine road there are good views of the Decarie overpass bridge, it is part of rue st Jacques which runs east west along the escarpment. Its a good scene, today was just a quick painting of it without all the details rendered. Looks like more rain on the forecast for awhile! 

Decarie overpass bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

Van Horne Rosemont overpass

Where Van Horne avenue meets boulevard Rosemont there is an overpass that goes over st Urbain and st Laurent. It is roughly the boundary of Mile End and beginning of Le Plateau neighborhood. Montreal agreed to demolish the overpass and replace it with a new structure which will no doubt create serious traffic chaos in this part of town for some time. No sign of any work as of yet. This scene shows the east end of the overpass bridge, it descends into rue st Denis and the Rosemont Metro station area. 

Rosemont overpass bus, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Here is a scene of dirty snow piles melting into a parking lot, with concrete dividers and the overpass seen in the upper right. Trees grow along this area, just wild trees that happen to take seed there. In the background there is a billboard and rows of triplex 'Plateau style' housing. 

Dirty snow piles overpass, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

After many years of construction,  in fact, I painted a frontal view of this area when they were building it back in 2019. Behind me is a massive bus depot covered in a sloping roof covered in grass, trees and paths. Its a park on top of a bus depot. This scene is standing up towards the high point of the new park, looking south to the Rosemont overpass. An ambulance went by. I think this scene will be good when the trees have leaves. The bus depot is neat too, but I will need a warm sunny day to paint it properly.  

Overpass view from Park Bellechasse, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Nature veto

Spending a lot of time around Montreal and I see small pieces of nature here and there, usually around highways, near fences, or back in parking lots. These spaces are fleeting because every square meter of Montreal must be developed with sidewalks, concrete containers, parks benches and plenty of interlocking stone bricks. I usually get a few months or years at most to paint such scenes. A perfect example was the Champ-de-Mars station, if you click that blog and scroll down, there was a huge field of wild daisies, incredible like a hillside in Switzerland or something. It didn't last long because the city has been digging up and pouring concrete there for the last five years. Thus, whenever and wherever nature can be found, Montreal has to veto it, and get the bulldozers fired up. 

Nature veto, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, April 2026

Searching for the green

Heading downtown again, it was still pretty quiet at the end of the long weekend, with slightly better weather than previous days. This underground highway exit is surrounded by a wide grassy area with landscaping, and a dog park off to the left. Since the snow melted, grass is starting to turn a little bit green. You can see a variety of colours in the grassy hillside from light green, to olive green, to dark yellow and shades of brown.  

Underground exit Spring, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Speaking of green, there were several varieties of green in this scene. Has there ever been more green in a scene? I mean, ask the Dean if they seen a clean bean. Okay so I am not a poet! To make the traffic light green, I started the painting with a lime-green circle (PY154 + PG36), then outlined in black after it dried. Composing big blocks of brown is tricky, so I lightened up the sky and the traffic to cut through the muck. 

Green light green dome, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

The new Canadian Maltage factory has high conveyors covered in tin structures that look like hallways. Capturing that shade of pale green, verging on dark yellow, involved a mix of perylene green (PBk31), indo orange-yellow (PY110), and some carbon black (PBk6) to neutralize. Working in the grey areas is essential when painting Montreal, especially in these between-season times like early Spring when everything is grey and dusty. 

Maltage conveyors, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

An old industrial building, or what remains of one, its just walls being held up by steel supports. The city obviously wanted to preserve the appearance of this very old structure which probably dates back to mid 19th century. A jumbo-sized gear on the outside informs on what was made here in the old days. Iron hamster wheel maybe? Graffiti writers put their signs on the wall, including good old PJD 2026. I am looking forward to Spring flowers and green grass now, although it was still fun to do lots of painting over the long weekend. 

Old wall gear, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

Taunted by rain

Today had intermittent rain showers, however, I managed to get down to the Point st Charles train yard without any rain. When I arrived, it started pouring and I took refuge in a bus shelter until it cleared up a bit and I could get a painting done of the trains and tracks. The earth was a very dark brown which I mixed with burnt umber (PBr7) and indo blue (PB60). 

Train yard rain, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

An old train repair building is being converted into a hipster hangout, they already have a pub, a vegan grocer, a bike repair shop, and a few other community services. In front, there used to be a nice field of grass and wild flowers, but since nature is illegal in Montreal, it was imperative to dig it all up and install concrete and benches everywhere. I'm sure it will look nice when they are finished. 

Hipster construction, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

There are several long berms of earth with grass growing on the empty back-lots. For some reason, the hill in the background was covered in colourful trash. I assume these items could be the remnants of a tent encampment since there were tarps, mattresses, and all manner of fabrics strewn about. As an artist I was drawn to this subject like a moth to a flame. The colourful accents really popped off against a grey and brown surrounding. A few orange construction signs and pylons completed the scene. I did one more painting by the Lachine canal but the rain started up again and I had to abandon ship. 

Colourful hill, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026